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SNCL Division C/D

1st XI v Clifton Village II

Saturday 26-June-2004

Wilsons (126 all out) lost to Clifton Village II (128-1) by 9 wickets.

After weeks of uninterrupted success, the firsts had a bad day at the office, crashing to a 9-wicket victory in quick time against a Clifton team that we were surprised were only mid-table.

The day started as unsettled as the weather – a late injury to Imran and non-appearance of Nabeel lead to the late inclusion of Tim Taylor and Jim Norman, but we could have no complaints about the strength of our side. Tim is the form bowler of the moment and Jim has already contributed a number of useful contributions (and some batting) to our immaculate start. The batting order was, if anything, the strongest so far with a bottom five of Caldwell, Norman, Wilson, Ahmed and Taylor, a quintet of greater pedigree that most of our opponent’s top fives. So when Boss defied convention by winner the toss, there was no reason to change our winning practice of batting first. The pitch had been covered and therefore the wet outfield would be as much a hindrance to the fielding side as the batters.

Bush and Maxey started and faced an opening attack as varied as it is possible to face. First up was a wily old timer who maintained a metronomic line and length, and, though this is difficult to believe, swung the ball slower than Rosey. At the other end was a young guy with a bowling stride somewhere between Graham Dilley and Basil Fawlty’s “Germans” sketch, but who could certainly get the ball through quickly (the bruise from his second ball is developing nicely and will be available for viewing on my private subscription-only website – ed.). Both the line and length were less impressive and runs came quickly. Maxey in particular used the huge gap between backward point and straight mid-off (clearly never seen me bat before – ed.) to unfurl a number of earth scorching drives.

At the other end Bush was nurdling away and clipped a couple of exquisite fours of his legs to bring up the fifty for the opening partnership in 14 overs. Clifton were very quiet and seemingly out of it. Readers of a nervous disposition would be advised to leave the website now as this was the high point of the day. Following a bowling change, Maxey fell for 31 off 50 balls and from 55-0 Wilsons went to 70-6, in the next 6 overs. Shahzard got an absolute beauty first ball, Jamie’s biffing was cut short by a decent catch at mid-on, Bush failed to pull properly (insert your own joke here), Boss toe-ended a yorker onto his stumps and Zak got his co-ordinates wrong and suffered the usual consequences of trying to leg glance a ball from off stump.

TC and Jim played well to add 24, with their distinctive tennis shots through cover and strange one leg, front foot pulls respectively well to the fore. Jim was then bowled by a ball the umpire later suggested might have been no-balled for being above waist height. Everybody was clear however that firstly Jim should have smacked it to, or over, the boundary and secondly this wasn’t a match defining issue. As if to emphasise the depth of the batting our last pair added 20 before rain stopped play. Tea and frequent weather reports from Chilwell (the direction we thought the weather was coming from) were taken. The covers came off, only to be rapidly reapplied when a seemingly decisive further burst of rain appeared. Clifton however were understandably keen to continue, and despite some reservations from the senior (i.e. oldest) pro, one of the umpires and Jim pretending to swim to the score box, play restarted a couple of hours later at 6 pm.

Only 2 more were added before Ifty was disappointed to be judged (very well) caught behind and Wilsons’s collapse was complete. 126 all out, all wickets falling for 71.

Clifton set out at a gallop, with one eye on the darkening clouds. Wilsons were aided by a pulled muscle suffered by Clifton’s star turn (but not until he’d completed his fifty) but distinctly hindered by not being able to see the ball in the field. All the bowlers suffered from the game’s momentum being behind Clifton, something that invariably means that promoted hitters succeed. Shahzard was the pick and Maxey took the only wicket via a very well judged catch by TC but victory in the 19th over illustrates how paltry the Wilsons total was and ineffectual the defence of this score was.

Wilsons remain top despite what we are confident is a momentary drop in standards. Luck, as well as loss of form, played a part as 30 minutes after the end of play, the heavens opened again and Wilsons would have escaped. Weather elsewhere didn’t help; with Kirkby Portland playing Old Paviors we could have expected some damage to the average of one of our nearest rivals had rain not intervened.

Steve Maxey

Table to be updated (current table to 19 June 2004).